KSS AHSN Newsletter – 06 November 2014

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Innovation acceleration

This week’s Health Service Journal features the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) healthcare programme and how it boosts SME innovation. It’s well worth a look gain a better understanding of what the SBRI programme is all about and the current opportunities.

The piece quotes Sir Bruce Keogh, National Clinical Director, NHS England:

One opportunity for the NHS to support economic growth is by ensuring that the innovative products we need are developed and grown at home and to NHS specified need. The SBRI programme does exactly this. We define the challenges – we fund companies to match our needs and with the AHSNs we seek to embed these new ways of working throughout the NHS.

That neatly summarises our role: speeding up and extending NHS use of proven new products, technology and services with high potential to improve patient care and drive economic growth. SBRI winners making an impact in KSS include telehealth innovators Docobo working with Sussex Community Trust and PolyPhotonix who we have supported to establish three trial sites for their sleep mask which is a new treatment diabetic retinopathy.

Innovation enabled

SBRI is designed to support economic growth and enable the development of innovative products and services. It achieves those goals by offering significant support to SMEs. It works through a series of “competitions”, each focused on a specific theme. Competition winners are fully funded through three stages, from proof of concept to delivery in the marketplace. AHSNs can often help bidders to apply successfully and at the other end of the pipeline, enhance access to a wider NHS market. Last year we worked with Wessex AHSN and SEHTA to lead the SBRI competition around COPD and the AHSNs are collaborating to share leadership of the programmes based on local priorities.

The current competitions are:

  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health – led by West of England, West Midlands and Imperial College AHSNs;
  • Telehealth/Telecare for outpatients – led by Yorkshire & Humber AHSN;
  • Brain Injury – led by Eastern AHSN with the NIHR HTC and North East & North Cumbria AHSN;
  • Diabetic Foot Ulcers – led by East Midlands and the Innovate UK pathways team;
  • Medical Imaging – led by UCL Partners AHSN.

Applications forms and information for these competitions can be found at www.sbrihealthcare.co.uk and the deadline is 12 noon on 9 December 2014. Links to AHSN information and contact details are on the NHS England website.

Clock ticks on nomination time

The clocks may have gone back but the deadline to nominate outstanding clinical teams and innovators for the prestigious new KSS AHSN awards approaches rapidly! Nominations need to be in by 5pm on Friday 14 November. You can find all the details about the awards and the simple nomination process on our website. Awards will be presented at the KSS Expo and Awards in January.

Kind regards,

Guy Boersma
Managing Director, KSS AHSN

NIHR Fellowships Round 8 is now open for applications
[National Institute for Health Research]

NIHR Fellowships support outstanding individuals to become the health research leaders of the future by buying out their salary costs, meeting their training and development costs and by contributing to the research costs needed to complete an identified research project.

Applications are invited from individuals working in any sector or scientific discipline who propose to undertake people or patient-based clinical and applied health research at an institution based in England.

Five levels of NIHR Fellowship award are available: Doctoral, Post-doctoral, Career Development, Senior Research and Transitional Research.

Closing date for the applications is 21st January 2015 at 1.00pm. For further information, please click here.

HEKSS Innovation Challenge Fund receives 52 entries
[Health Education Kent, Surrey and Sussex (HEKSS)]

Fifty-two proposals have been submitted for the HEKSS Innovation Challenge Fund from a wide range of health and care providers across Kent, Surrey and Sussex. The fund was established to speed up the introduction of new approaches to training and education that will enable health and care professionals to deliver better, more efficient care for patients.

Short-listing is currently taking place and the judging panel, a sub-section of the HEKSS Research, Innovation and Evaluation Programme Board, are aiming to announce the winners later in November.

All those who submitted proposals will be invited to join a HEKSS Research and Innovation Hub event in Spring 2015 to share and develop innovative ideas and provide opportunities for collaboration and access to funding streams.

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